Act on proposals by coffee task force

A task force appointed to review the challenges facing the coffee sector has finally completed its work and presented its report to the President.

If adapted, some of the recommendations will go a long way in improving fortunes of coffee farmers and bolstering the sub-sector. In some of the raft of recommendations by the Task force on Coffee Sub-sector Reforms headed by Prof Joseph Kieyah, the team wants payment delays eliminated. In this respect, farmers will be paid 40 per cent of the prevailing price immediately cherry is delivered to mills. In addition, farmers will be paid a minimum advance payment of Sh15 for every kilogramme of cherry delivered.

The task force also recommended that at least Sh200 million be set aside to market Kenyan coffee abroad, in addition to having debts that farmers owe cooperative societies, unions and the Cooperative Bank waived by the government.

We agree with one of the task force recommendations that more should be done to encourage youth to take up coffee farming. This team warns that the average age of a coffee farmer is now 60 years. This should raise the red flag because if younger people do not take up coffee farming, coffee, which is Kenya’s third highest foreign exchange earner, could soon see a decline in production.

The government should now study the report and implement some of the recommendations so that farmers can increase their production.